33-3 The Senses

Bio 30 - NWRC
Taste
 Taste
• Taste is one of the five senses through
which all animals interpret the world
around them. Specifically, taste is the
sense for determining the flavour of food
and other substances. It is one of the two
chemical senses (the other being smell)
and it is stimulated when taste buds on the
tongue come in
 Taste
• Clusters of small organs called taste buds are
located in the mouth, mainly on the surface of
the tongue. Taste buds (named so because
under the microscope they look similar to plant
buds) lie in small projections called papillae and
contain taste receptors that bind to food
molecules broken down by saliva. These
receptors send messages along nerves to the
brain, which interprets the flavor as sweet, sour,
salty, or bitter.
 Smell
• Smell depends on
sensory receptors that
respond to airborne
chemicals. In humans,
these chemoreceptors
are located in the
olfactory epithelium —
a patch of tissue about
the size of a postage
stamp located high in the
nasal cavity.
 Sight
• Light enters the front of
the eye through the pupil
and is focused by the
lens onto the retina.
Rods and cone cells on
the retina respond to the
light and send a
message through the
optic nerve fiber to the
brain.
 Sight
• The rods are more
numerous, some 120 million,
and are more light sensitive
than the cones. However,
they are not sensitive to
colour. The 6 to 7 million
cones provide the eye's
colour sensitivity Cones
function in light and are most
sensitive to colours
 Sight
• The retina is a multi-layered
sensory tissue that lines the
back of the eye. It contains
millions of photoreceptors
(rods and cones)that capture
light rays and convert them
into electrical impulses.
These impulses travel along
the optic nerve to the brain
where they are turned into
images.
• Watch Cow Eye Dissection
Hearing and Balance
Hearing and Balance
3 regions: outer ear or
pinna (collects and
directs sound waves),
middle ear (transfers
and amplifies the sound
waves), and the inner
ear (senses
pitch/frequency,
intensity/loudness, and
quality/timbre). A snail-
like structure called the
cochlea is the sensory
element of the inner ear.
Hearing and Balance
The cochlea is
a fluid-filled
chamber whose
fluid is set into
motion by
movement of
the oval window
between middle
and inner ears.
Hearing and Balance
The cochlea contains the basilar
membrane that varies in
stiffness along its length. High
frequencies deflect the basilar
membrane nearer to the oval
window and low frequencies
farther from the window. This
deflection activate receptors,
called the hair cells which
trigger nerve impulses. The
sensory input travels along the
cranial nerve to the brain
Hearing and Balance
3 fluid-filled semicircular
canals, arranged at right
angles to one another
Fluid movement
occurring within the
canals due to head
movement causes nerve
impulses to be sent to
the brain regarding head
position and movement.
These structures sense
head position and
acceleration.
Touch
Touch
The sense of touch is the
name given to a network of
nerve endings that reach just
about every part of our body.
These sensory nerve endings
are located just below the
skin and register light and
heavy pressure on the skin
and also differences in
temperature. These nerve
endings gather information
and send it to the brain
 Assessment
• 1. 1. Sound, which is transmitted as
sound waves (vibration of the air),
enters the ear canal and reaches the
eardrum.
• 2. The sound waves lead to the
vibration of the eardrum, which also
vibrates the small bones behind the
ear drum.
• 3. The vibration motion of the bones
makes the fluid in the inner ear or
cochlea to vibrate.
• 4. The vibration waves in the inner
ear fluid causes the sensory (hair)
cells in the inner ear (cochlea) to
bend. The hair cells change the
movement into electrical signals.
• 5. These electrical signals are
transmitted through the hearing
(auditory) nerve and up to the brain,
where they are interpreted.
 Assessment
• 2. If the cornea was
damaged light might
be distorted as it
entered the eye
causing the image in
the brain to be
distorted
 Assessment
• 3. The variety of
receptors are
important because
the fingers
encounter many
different types of
stimuli (pressure,
pain, etc.)
 Assessment
• 4. The sense of taste
comes from the
receptors in the
mouth and nasal
cavity. If the nasal
cavity is blocked the
brain does not get all
necessary
information to
identify a particular
taste.